1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to climbing tree stands and more specifically to leveler apparatus for adjusting climbing tree stands to narrower portions of tree trunks as a user climbs higher into trees.
2. State of the Prior Art
Hunters have long enjoyed the advantages offered by a higher position. Being above the ground gives a greater field of vision, protection from the elements, and makes the hunter harder to detect.
Original hunting stands were raised platforms, often built against or around trees. Such platforms were fixed structures. Although the hunter enjoyed the advantages of height, the area around the tree stand was soon depleted of game, the tree stand accumulated the hunter's scent from use to use, and the tree stand could not be moved or adjusted easily.
Climbing tree stands offer several advantages over fixed hunting stands. An obvious advantage is that of mobility. A hunter can use the climbing tree stand on virtually any tree that has a trunk which is not interrupted by low branches. With such mobility, depletion of game from a specific area can be avoided, and the area will not accumulate the hunter's scent. In addition, the tree stand can theoretically be used to climb very high into a tree.
A typical climbing tree stand comprises a pair of frames that fit around a tree trunk. Each frame has two ends, a front end and a back end, and two cross-bars, a front cross-bar at the front end of the frame and a rear cross-bar at the rear end of the frame such that the front cross-bar and the rear cross-bar are spaced apart from each other in a manner that allows the front cross bar to be positioned on one side of the tree trunk and the rear cross-bar to be positioned in a diametrically opposite side of the tree trunk. Both cross-bars are usually connected together by two lateral frame members that are positioned on diametrically opposite lateral sides of the trunk from each other. When the hunter puts his weight on the front end of one of the frames, that frame tilts in relation to the tree trunk so that the front cross-bar and the rear cross-bar are both forced or wedged against the tree trunk, resulting in enough friction between the cross-bars and the tree trunk to support the hunter's weight.
Using two frames allows the hunter to climb the tree. As the hunter stands on a lower frame and holds an upper frame in his hands, he can lift the upper frame as high as he can reach safely, and then he can hold himself on the upper frame, thereby locking the upper frame to the tree with his weight, as described above, while he lifts the lower frame with his feet. He can then stand again with his weight on the lower frame and repeat the process.
The tree stand must be adjusted to the width of the tree trunk, because the angle at which the tree stand will engage and remain on the tree trunk is determined by how much the distances between the two cross-bars exceeds the diameter of the trunk. Existing tree stands address this problem by allowing one of the cross-bars of the tree stand to be adjusted closer to, or farther from the other cross-bar, often by bolts that attach the cross-bar to the rest of the frame. For a larger diameter tree trunk, the cross-bar is moved farther away from the other cross-bar and bolted in place. For a smaller diameter tree trunk, the cross-bar can be moved closer to the other cross-bar to make the distance between the cross-bars correspondingly smaller.
The higher one climbs on a tree, the smaller in diameter the trunk becomes. Many existing tree stands cannot adjust for such changing diameter easily. This deficiency can result in the hunter having insufficient control over the angle of the frame in relation to the tree trunk, thus the angle at which he will sit when he reaches his desired height on the tree trunk. Such angle will be determined by the cross-bar positions he set before beginning his climb. The tree stand will engage the tree trunk and be oriented at steeper and steeper angles in relation to the tree trunk, the higher the hunter climbs. Consequently, such existing tree stands limit the hunter's comfort and safety, and they limit the height to which the hunter can climb with his stand.
It is usually quite precarious to remove the bolts that are used to set the cross-bars, when the tree stand and the hunter have climbed high above the ground. The hunter is often as high as 40 feet above the ground, standing on the lower frame or hanging from the upper frame. To unbolt the adjustable cross-bar requires two hands, so the hunter would be unable to also use his hands to grasp anything securely while unbolting and readjusting a cross-bar. If the hunter should lose his balance while fiddling with two bolts and a bar on the opposite side of the tree, he or she could fall and be injured severely.
Savvy hunters are able to extend their climbing ranges, and, to some extent, control the angle at which the tree stand is positioned when they have reached their desired height assembling their stands initially as high as they can reach on the tree trunk, while they are still standing on the ground, and then they laboriously pull themselves up to the stand to begin the climbing process. Once at their desired height, some hunters insert wood wedges between the tree trunks and the cross-bars, effectively widening the tree trunk to a desired width, and thereby controlling the tree stand angle in relation to the tree trunk. The dangers of this practice are obvious: the hunter depends on that wedge for his very life, because the tree stand will at least shift violently if the wedge becomes dislodged.
Hunters need a better way to adjust or level their tree stands while climbing in order to extend their climbing ranges and to allow for greater comfort and safety when finally positioned at a desired angle. However, such adjustment must be operable while the hunter can still hold onto either the frame or the tree itself, thus it must be convenient to adjust with one hand while leaving the hunter's other hand free to grasp the frame or the tree for support.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a convenient mechanism for adjusting a tree stand to a tree trunk with one hand.